Benjamin Grosvenor, Piano

Friday, November 17, 2017 | 8:00 pm

Benjamin Grosvenor became a classical music star before he was a teenager. In 2004, at the age of eleven, he won the BBC’s Young Musician Competition, a victory that catapulted him to the most prestigious halls in the world and won him substantial critical acclaim. In the thirteen years since, Grosvenor has proven his staying power, appearing with major orchestras and recording an award-winning series of solo albums. At twenty-four, he is frequently praised for his musical maturity; The New York Times raved that Grosvenor “commands the stage with aristocratic ease” and “makes you sigh with joy.”

For his return to Duke Performances, Grosvenor offers spirited, sensitive interpretations of Bach’s diaphanous French Suite No. 5, Mozart’s vivacious and winding “Linz” Sonata, and a solo piano arrangement of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. He floats through Berg’s dreamlike Piano Sonata before the concert’s grand finale, Ravel’s tempestuous Gaspard de la nuit. Don’t miss the remarkable young musician International Piano calls “a master of grandeur and of the subtlest range of color and nuance, devout and dazzling.”